Trail Time! Tinley Creek Woods

This is the beginning of our PAVED trail in Tinley Creek Woods, Tinley Park, IL. This trail definitely has something for everyone. You can see the black topped trail to the left and to the right a prairie, a lovely sea of goldenrod growing right now. Isn't it beautiful? There were deer feeding in the distance, too far for me to get on camera.

Here is our first stop on the left side of the trail, away from the prairie, there are more trees on this side. I love the shadows and sunlight playing off each other. The tips of goldenrod illuminate from afternoon sun. This will be a painting one day.

OH BOY, Tall Coreopsis, these wildflowers can grow up to 8' tall but these were only about 4' tall. This picture was taken in shadow light and seem more blue than in real life.

Man made vs. God made. This is at the edge of the prairie right before the scenery starts to change. You can hear the buzzz sound from the high wires when standing in this spot. Probably not the most healthy place to be, I don't know why the wires buzzz, I'm not sticking around to find out! It is a pretty sight, the architectural structure riding in the distance. In this spot I heard many blue jays and spotted 3 crows. Go Crows! Go Blue jays! I say that because Wst Nile virus killed many of these in our area. Crows and blue jays are related which explains why both were affected.

This trail now goes under a major busy street. It's fun to walk under the cars into the forest........WOW! Just steps away, quiet peaceful forest! Look at how the light peaks through the branches. Just the best fun one can have! This is about as far as I got, about 1 mile. If I had more time I would have gone on, we'll save that for another day!

Hope you enjoyed!

What Thistle am I?

This is thistle. Of which kind I don't know. I thought I knew, but now am thouroughly confused! At first I thought I identified this as Pasture Thistle, in the blue/purple section, from my guide book, Tallgrass Prairie Wildflower, but looking at the pink section, saw Prairie Thistle. Oh no. But now the book mentions Tall Thistle???

To make matters worse, I thought I better get the definition of field, prairie, and pasture straight and perhaps I'll solve the matter that way. Nice try. OK, I know a pasture is for livestock but the dictionary also labels it as a field and prairie. A meadow is a tract of grassland used for pasture, and a prairie is a tract of grassland; meadow. So a pasture is a prairie and a field, and a meadow is a pasture......AHHHHHHHHH.

Here are the stats:
It was in a field, prairie, and pasture (there were 4 deer feeding in the distance).
It was about 3-4' tall.
In the picture we can see some white underside of the leaf? Maybe the white hairs noted under Pasture Thistle

My friends are probably rolling their eyes right now thinking, who cares it's a thistle. But this thistle really wants to be identified. He's saying, "Please identify me, please, make me real!" OK, maybe not. If anyone has an idea that would be wonderfull.

Oh, the adventures of a nature lover!

A Handsome Weed

This is a Cut-Leaved Teasel. They grow very, very tall, about 6 feet tall and bloom little white flowers on the heads. Another teasel is the Common Teasel which does not have "cut-lobed" leaves and bloom purple flowers. You're probably asking, "handsome?" Well, I think so. They remind me of barbarian weapons too!
Teasel is very aggressive and will take over a prairie, meadow, field, etc., if left unchecked.

For that reason, it's probably not a favorite to many, but from an artist's perspective it sure would make a nice graphite drawing!